Volume 2 • Issue 2 • 1000113 Air Water Borne Diseases ISSN: 2167-7719 AWBD, an open access journal Open Access Research Article Air & Water Borne Diseases dos Santos et al., Air Water Borne Diseases 2013, 2:2 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2167-7719.1000113 Keywords: Tick-borne disease; Anaplasmataceae; Fowl; Poconé; Brazil Introduction Birds and bats can act as reservoirs of several pathogens including those transmitted by ticks and lies. Some infections can be transmitted by trematode-vectors, which use freshwater snails and aquatic insects as intermediate hosts and insectivorous birds and bats as deinitive hosts. hey also can be considered as potential transmitters of some tick- borne diseases, mainly due to its migratory character, since eventually they carry the infected ticks in areas where transit. Agents that stand out are the bacteria from Anaplasmataceaes family that already have been widely associated with disease in humans and animals, with cycle involving invertebrate vectors. Pathogens such as Ehrlichia, Anaplasma and Neorickettsia are being increasingly recognized around the world in order to elucidate the importance of its infections and ability to cause illness in animals and/or human beings [1-4]. Anaplasmataceae agents comprise obligate intracellular bacteria that can cause disease in humans and animals, whose cycle in the environment involves complex interactions between invertebrate vectors and vertebrate hosts [5]. here is ecological evidence that passerine birds, at least in principle, could be competent reservoirs for A. phagocytophilum as many avian species host larval and nymphal I. scapularis ticks [6,7]. Exposure of passerines to A. phagocytophilum- infected nymphs has been demonstrated [8], including infected larvae found attached to an American robin (Turdus migratorius) and a veery (Catharus fuscescens) [9]. However, direct evidence demonstrating birds as competent reservoirs of members from the family Anaplasmataceae are still scarce. For instance in Brazil, Machado et al. [1] was the only one that reported molecular detection of A. phagocytophilum in carnivorous and migratory birds. Additionally they also reported for the irst time DNA of E. chafeensis and an Ehrlichia species, phylogenetically related to E. canis in birds sampled in Mato Grosso and Sao Paulo state. Neorickettsia risticii (formerly Ehrlichia risticii) belongs to the Anaplasmataceae family and is the causative agent of Potomac Horse Fever (also known as Equine Monocytic Ehrlichiosis- EME), a severe *Corresponding author: Daniel Moura de Aguiar, Laboratorio de Virologia e Rickettsioses, Hospital Veterinario, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso. Av. Fernando Correa, 2367, Boa Esperanca, Cuiaba, Brazil, Tel: +55 65 36158627; E-mail: danmoura@ufmt.br Received August 06, 2013; Accepted September 02, 2013; Published September 09, 2013 Citation: dos Santos LGF, Ometto T, de Araújo J, Thomazelli LM, Borges LP (2013) Absence of Anaplasmataceae DNA in Wild Birds and Bats from a Flooded Area in the Brazilian Northern Pantanal. Air Water Borne Diseases 2: 113. doi: 10.4172/2167-7719.1000113 Copyright: © 2013 dos Santos LGF, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract Birds and bats can be considered potential transmitters of some tick-borne diseases, since eventually they carry infected ticks in areas where transit. Pantanal ecosystem is the largest tropical wetland area of the world with more than 582 recorded avian species, contributing to the maintenance of different tick species. The aim of this study was to examine altogether 152 blood samples of several bird and bat species collected in a large looded area of Pantanal for the presence of members from genera Ehrlichia, Anaplasma and Neorickettsia. None PCR product was obtained, what suggest that wild, domestic birds and bats from Pantanal region are unlikely to play a signiicant role in the maintenance of tick-borne agents and DNA survey from this species in birds may not be a reliable indicator of exposure. Absence of Anaplasmataceae DNA in Wild Birds and Bats from a Flooded Area in the Brazilian Northern Pantanal Luana Gabriela Ferreira dos Santos 1 , Tatiana Ometto 2 , Jansen de Araújo 2 , Luciano Matsumya Thomazelli 2 , Leticia Pinto Borges 1 , Dirceu Guilherme Ramos 3 , Edison Luis Durigon 2 , Joao Batista Pinho 4 and Daniel Moura de Aguiar 1* 1 Laboratorio de Virologia e Rickettsioses, Hospital Veterinario, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Brazil 2 Laboratorio de Virologia Clinica e Molecular NB3+, Departamento de Microbiologia, Instituto de Ciencias Biomedicas II, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil 3 Laboratorio de Parasitologia e Doencas Parasitarias, Hospital Veterinario, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Brazil 4 Laboratório de Ecologia de Aves, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso, Brazil febrile disease afecting horses, typically found in endemic countries during the warmest months. In the environment, N. risticii infects trematodes from the genus Acanthatrium and Lecithodendrium. he lifecycles of these trematodes are not very clear, both are known to involve several stages that range from free-living cercaria to forms that infect invertebrates such as the miracidia and sporocysts (that infect freshwater snails) and the metacercaria (that infect aquatic insects) [10]. In enzootic areas of USA, a common pleurocerid snail, Juga yrekaensis is suspected to be involved in the life cycle of N. risticii [11]. Additionally, DNA from N. risticii has been detected in virgulate cercariae in lymnaeid snails (Stagnicola spp.) in virgulate xiphidiocercariae isolated from pleurocerid snails Elimia livescens and Elimia virginica, indicating that other species of freshwater snails may also harbor infected trematodes [12,13]. Adult forms of these trematodes develop in the intestine of insectivorous vertebrates such as bats and birds, therefore it has been suggested that certain species of bats and birds (swallows) may act as wild reservoirs of N. risticii [14,15]. Recently, molecular detection of N. risticii in bats of the species Tadarida brasiliensis was reported in Argentina [16]. In Brazil, spontaneous outbreaks of equine monocytic Ehrlichiosis (EME) were described in south region [17-19]. In Rio Grande do Sul state, snails from the genus Heleobia, harboring Parapleurolophocercous